Okay. I know some will shake your heads and think “Oh God, I hope the title ain‘t a metaphor for this tale.” We‘ll see.

     The tale is an old one, five–hundred years old, beginning when the kings and money–men and soldiers–of–fortune of western Europe started stealing most of the rest of the world. You know the story of those five centuries. There’s no need for me to remind you, especially since the Pope and the President have already done so.

      It would be more apt to say they have reminded some folk who are not poor that there are some folk who are. They didn‘t bring up the fact that generation after generation of thievery will leave one‘s victims and their descendants in poverty. Using their pulpits, sacred and bully, they only pointed out that said poverty still needs attending to. While acknowledging the help needed beyond our borders and seeing to it we at least do some of what we can, the President must focus (and be seen to focus) on poverty as a domestic issue. On that front, what can be accomplished with the current House? The Pope doesn’t have to limit his scope, but appears limited in what he can do. He can use the force of his moral authority to try and sway the laity toward greater action. He can give guidance to the priesthood on how to proceed. He can…what?

     Let‘s get back to the western Europeans. They, and those living in the western European diaspora, enjoy a higher standard of living than everyone else. Mention is seldom made of how this has come to be, as if it would be discourteous to do so. Not talking about it, however, only increases the number of people who don‘t give the poor a thought, leaving them clueless as to why they happen to have it so good when others do not. They may be about to be clued in.

      Through the efforts of the President, the Pope and other world leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki–moon, the UN Security Council is preparing to begin considering the International Affirmative–Action Initiative (IAAI). Through this initiative, the former colonial nations will each partner with a nation from among their former colonies. Both nations in each partnership will work together to increase self-sufficiency and raise the standard of living in those countries still struggling to support themselves. The initiative also requires the diaspora nations (including this country) to work to do the same for their own citizens whose current substandard conditions can be attributed directly to the colonization of aboriginal ancestors, the enslavement of African ancestors, or governmental discrimination against the descendants of either group. Reports indicate that once the Security Council acts, the General Assembly will move to approve the measure.

      Okay. None of that is real. It‘s all just a daydream, but sometimes just a dream will have to do until we can do better. When the gravity of fate pulls us around to a familiar point, a dream may be the only thing that prevents us from making the same mistake twice.

      For example: once upon a time, due largely to voting irregularities in Florida, the presidential election was thrown into question and had to be decided by an empaneled group. The Democratic candidate had won the popular vote, but the Republican majority on the panel gave the office to the Republican candidate instead. As Commander-in-Chief, that President’s decision on the use of the military endangered the lives of four million innocent men, women and children, and led to the deaths of thousands. This was the result of the election of 1876. When it happened to us all over again in 2000, were we ready? No. We had nothing, not even a dream.

      (Even the things we‘ve done to others seem to circle back, but as things done to us. Consider what we did elsewhere on 9/11 in 1973, and what happened here on that same date in 2001; many of us, even though aware of the former, still never dreamed the latter could happen).

      There is no reason not to consider that some technological advance or other such advantage will find the world‘s richest nations in a position similar to that of the old colonial powers in their relations with everyone else. What then? Historians and futurists, economists and social theorists, and others from many fields of study would do well to collectively answer a heretofore unasked question: what would the world be like today if those Europeans had engaged the rest of the world in a free and fair exchange of natural resources, goods, services and ideas? Who knows if it would be a world worth daydreaming about, but trying to figure that out might be helpful if it‘s true heavenly bodies aren‘t all that go ‘round in circles.